The Lions will get at least 6 wins this season. The Raiders hope to not get 6 losses by week 8.

How? The Lions have a bad defense with one good player--Sims. They have an offensive line at least as bad as Oakland's if not worse. Their running game is questionable at best, and their QB is questionable. They have WRs with great potential and/or production. And what else?

The Raiders have the chance to have an outstanding defense, an offensive line that looked very good in run blocking and improved on pass blocking, 3 weapons at RB and weapons at WR. They have a run defense that was bad last year, but not legendary bad. I mean, heck, the Dolphins had a worse run defense last year and the Broncos were just barely better. To help things with the run defense, Sapp is gone. It was Sapp who was the weak link along the line in terms of run defense and that's by a long shot. Now they have Jamarcus Russell who is basically a rookie, and they have Kwame Harris at LT. That's bad, yes. But if you had seen Barry Sims try to take on speed rushers the past 2 years, you would understand that Kwame Harris isn't really a downgrade. And Jamarcus Russell... He will make plenty of mistakes as a starter. But he has also shown a great drive to improve this offseason, spending months and months with Greg Knapp and the Raiders' QB coach as well as a drive to be in tip-top physical shape to run an offense that will require him to rollout to the strongside (and away from Harris) a lot. If the Raiders have the same kind of rush offense or better, Russell will have little more than a Ben Roethlisberger role in the offense.

How? The Lions have a bad defense with one good player--Sims. They have an offensive line at least as bad as Oakland's if not worse. Their running game is questionable at best, and their QB is questionable. They have WRs with great potential and/or production. And what else?

The Raiders have the chance to have an outstanding defense, an offensive line that looked very good in run blocking and improved on pass blocking, 3 weapons at RB and weapons at WR. They have a run defense that was bad last year, but not legendary bad. I mean, heck, the Dolphins had a worse run defense last year and the Broncos were just barely better. To help things with the run defense, Sapp is gone. It was Sapp who was the weak link along the line in terms of run defense and that's by a long shot. Now they have Jamarcus Russell who is basically a rookie, and they have Kwame Harris at LT. That's bad, yes. But if you had seen Barry Sims try to take on speed rushers the past 2 years, you would understand that Kwame Harris isn't really a downgrade. And Jamarcus Russell... He will make plenty of mistakes as a starter. But he has also shown a great drive to improve this offseason, spending months and months with Greg Knapp and the Raiders' QB coach as well as a drive to be in tip-top physical shape to run an offense that will require him to rollout to the strongside (and away from Harris) a lot. If the Raiders have the same kind of rush offense or better, Russell will have little more than a Ben Roethlisberger role in the offense.

The winner should just be next, since it's clear these are the next two. No need to vote again.

You're probably right, but I normally try to get it so that the 2 teams are running away with the poll (75% of all votes and double any other team). I've had this stance since the beginning of these rankings. There are a lot of people who think that the Rams are worse than either or both of these two teams. Many people who voted for the Raiders feel the Rams are worse than the Lions and same for those who voted for the Lions.

It is likely that whoever doesn't get the most votes here, will be off the board next round, but in this case, it's seemingly much more up in the air than others--certainly than last round when it was either the 49ers or the Chiefs and really no one else.

And I would rather have these polls represent the true opinions of the board than speed through them.

Right now, the Raiders are the worst of these 2 teams. By the end of the season however I feel it will be the Lions as they will fall apart and the pieces of the Raiders will start to gel. (my opinion anyway)

But since rankings are for the here and now (as far as I know....) I voted Oakland

I think the Raiders are worse but its close. Personally I'm with Yoda with the rams as the worse at this point. Lions are better on every facet of the Offense except RB (OL is equal [homer]If not better[/homer])

The Lions D has improved much more than people suspect I'm not even going to try to argue that The secondary of the Raiders is far superior toi the secondary of the Lions. Also if I'm at all updated on the DE situation the Raideers are also superior on that facet of the game DTs I think are equal. As is the LB corps.

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